# ally

Pronunciation: say "AL-y" /ˈæl.aɪ/

## Noun

1. A person, group, or state joined to another by treaty for a shared aim, especially a military or political one.
   - Simple: A country, group, or person joined to another by an agreement to help in war or politics.
   - _France remained a steadfast ally throughout the long campaign._
   - _The two nations became allies after signing the defense pact._
2. A friend or associate, or someone who gives another person help or cooperates with them.
   - Simple: A person who helps and works together with another, or a friend.
   - _Throughout the dispute, she proved a reliable ally to the junior staff._
   - _He counted the librarian among his closest allies on campus._
3. A person or organization that supports a demographic group facing discrimination without belonging to it; specifically, someone outside the LGBT+ community who backs it.
   - Simple: A person who is not part of a group facing unfair treatment, but who stands up and supports it.
   - _The company positioned itself as an ally of marginalized communities._
   - _Many straight allies attended the rally in solidarity._
6. A person, group, or concept regarded as a helper, auxiliary, or supporter to another.
   - Simple: Something that helps or supports you, such as an idea or tool.
   - _Time proved an unexpected ally as public opinion slowly shifted._
   - _Surprise and darkness were the raiders' chief allies._
9. A thing considered akin to another because the two share features or a common nature.
   - Simple: A thing seen as related to another because they share features.
   - _Botanists treat the herb as a close ally of mint._
   - _Chemically the two minerals are allies, differing only in trace elements._
10. An organism related to another through common evolutionary origin; specifically, a species closely related to another, usually within the same family.
   - Simple: A living thing closely related to another, like a plant or animal in the same family.
   - _The cultivated apple and its wild ally share many traits._
   - _Taxonomists grouped the new species with its nearest allies._

## Verb

4. To enter into an alliance or unite with another for a common purpose.
   - Simple: To join with others to work toward a shared goal.
   - _Several nations chose to ally against the common threat._
   - _The two factions allied to overthrow the regime._
5. To unite or form a connection between people or things, as families through marriage or states through treaty.
   - Simple: To join two people or groups together, as by marriage or a treaty.
   - _A single treaty can ally nations that once fought bitterly._
   - _Centuries of diplomacy allied the two kingdoms through repeated marriages._
7. To join or unite oneself with, or against, another person, group, or thing.
   - Simple: To join yourself with or against another person or group.
   - _Smaller firms often ally themselves with a dominant partner to survive._
   - _The duke allied himself with the crown against the rebels._
8. To connect or relate something to another by similarity in features or nature.
   - Simple: To link one thing to another because they are alike in some way.
   - _Linguists ally those dialects with a single ancestral tongue._
   - _The critic allied the painting to earlier Flemish work._

## Noun

11. A person belonging to the same family as another. *(obsolete)*
   - Simple: A member of your family, or a relative.
12. Groups, states, or people united with one another for a common purpose; collectively, confederates; also the condition of being allied, an alliance or confederation. *(obsolete)*
   - Simple: A group joined together for a shared aim, or the joining itself, an alliance.
13. A person's relatives considered collectively; also, the state of being related to someone by descent or marriage. *(obsolete)*
   - Simple: Your relatives as a group, or the link of being related by birth or marriage.
14. Alternative spelling of alley. *(obsolete)* — Alternative spelling of alley (“a glass marble or taw”). (pronounced: say "AL-ee" /ˈæli/)
   - Simple: Alternative spelling of alley. It refers to a glass marble used in children's games.
   - _The boy prized one large ally above all his other marbles._
   - _A well-aimed ally scattered the cluster in the center._

## Origin

**Meanings 4–5, 7–8** — From Middle English allien (to form an alliance, join, unite), borrowed through Anglo-Norman and Old French alier (to join together, unite, or alloy metals), from Latin alligare, from ad- (an intensifying prefix) plus ligo (to bind or tie), tracing back to Proto-Indo-European *leyǵ- (to bind, tie). It is a doublet of allay, alligate, alloy, and ligament.
**Meanings 1–3, 6, 9–13** — From Middle English allie, probably formed partly from the verb allien (see etymology 1) and partly from Anglo-Norman and Old French allié (an associate, supporter, or state united with another by treaty), which was a noun use of the past participle of the verb alier.

Source: DictionaryAI, https://dictionaryai.com/define/ally (written from Wiktionary data, CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).